Question

Describe three populations of users with special needs. For each of these populations, suggest three ways current interfaces could be improved to better serve them. Submit a typed written document that includes the three chosen populations. Your paper should be a minimum of two pages long and should include an introduction and a conclusion. Your paper should be formatted per AP

Answer 1

User-friendly interfaces are necessary for all sorts of equipment in the home and outside, taking into account that many older people have impairments in vision, hearing, mobility or dexterity. Clearly, the benefits of AmI environments can only be fully achieved and accepted by their target end-users if such technologies can demonstrably be developed in such a way as to guarantee inclusive accessibility for a wide variety of functional limitations brought about by age or disabilities.

In such a dynamically evolving and complex technological environment, accessibility and usability by users with different characteristics and requirements cannot be addressed through solutions introduced once the main building components of the new environment are in place. In such a context, the concept of Design for All acquires critical importance towards streamlining accessibility into the new technological environment through generic solutions. However, in the context of Ambient Intelligence, Design for All will need to evolve in order to address a series of new challenges posed by the evolving technological environment.

The accessibility of AmI environments poses different problems and is more complex than currently available approaches to the accessibility of desktop or web applications and services, as AmI environments do not simply introduce a new technology, but an integrated set of technologies. Different levels of accessibility may be distinguished. A first level concerns accessibility of individual devices. Interactive devices need to be accessible to their owners according to their needs, but basic accessibility should also be provided for other users with potentially different needs. A second level concerns the accessibility of the environment as a whole, intended as equivalent access to content and functions for users with diverse characteristics, not necessarily through the same devices, but through a set of dynamic interaction options integrated in the environment.

It is likely that some of the built-in features of AmI environments, such as multi-modality, will facilitate the provision of solutions that will be accessible by design. For example, blind users will benefit from the wider availability of voice input and output. A novel aspect is that in AmI environments, the accessibility of the physical and of the virtual world need to be combined. For example, for blind, visually impaired and motor-impaired users, requirements related to interaction need to be combined with requirements related to physical navigation in the interactive environment.

As a result, developing truly accessible AmI environments is currently very expensive in terms of time, effort, costs and required knowledge, and the results are often of limited flexibility and reusability in terms of accessibility solutions and target user groups addressed.

Therefore, it is necessary to elaborate on the one hand a user-centered but also context-aware methodology for enabling Design for All in Ambient Intelligence, and on the other hand modern tools and personalized assistive solutions that will constitute the building blocks for the development of independent living AmI environments addressing the interaction needs of older and disabled persons.

Several challenges need to be addressed in order to elaborate a systematic approach to accessibility and Design for All in AmI environments

• Advancing knowledge of user requirements and of the appropriateness of different solutions for different combinations of user characteristics / functional limitations and environment characteristics / functions, and creating related ontological models.
• Developing reference architectural models that will accommodate system requirements inherent in the Design for All needs in AmI environments, while allowing for accessible multi-modal interaction.
• Providing ready-to-use accessibility solutions supporting alternative interaction techniques for various combinations of user abilities / functional limitations.
• Developing design tools for accessible AmI environments.
• Developing accessible AmI applications in key everyday life domains, such as, home, work, learning, health and self-care.
• Evaluating the developed assistive solutions tools and applications in order to assess their accessibility, usability and added value for the target users.

Ambient Intelligence can have profound consequences on the sort, content and practicality of the rising merchandise and services, also as on the manner individuals can move with them, delivery concerning multiple new needs. The potential of AmI environments to handle older and disabled people’s way of life wants is predicted to own a radical impact on social inclusion and freelance living. several applications and services that address a good style of problems essential for older and disabled individuals square measure already turning into accessible, as an example within the domain of close motor-assisted Living (AAL), and square measure targeted to create doable and gratifying a additional freelance, active and healthy life. variety of ICT solutions address daily and freelance living in areas like social communication, daily looking, travel, social life, public services, safety, reminders, telecare and telemedicine, personal health systems, and support for individuals with psychological feature issues and their carers